November 09, 2010

Story Of A Woman Who Cured Hashimoto's Disease (And Lost 15 kg) In A Year!

This is a story of a PEERtrainer member that was sent to us today. It is awesome!!

15 kg in 12 months or how I got a new attitude of life

I’m a 31 years old woman from Germany and today I’d like to share my story with you.

I’m with Peertrainer since October 2009 and this time has been the most inspiring and uplifting time in my life. I don’t exaggerate when I tell you that I have a totally new attitude of life and an absolutely new and great body image.

When I started at Peertrainer in October 2009 I was very desperate and not happy at all. You must know that I suffer from a chronic autoimmune disease in my thyroid (Hashimoto’s disease). I must have had this disease since about 16 years now, but never recognized it until it got really worse – starting 2007 basically. I was tired all the time, totally depressed, low in energy, overweight, losing hair, muscles aching awfully and my whole body basically messed up. It was very difficult to find a doctor who knows about this disease and would treat me properly and without this smug “it’s all in your head” bullshit. I nearly ended up accepting that I would have to live like this forever. So in all my mess I started binge eating. When I felt down, alone at home, didn’t want to deal with my feelings and just wanted to numb me - I ate whatever was in reach, until I felt really sick. But somehow it never helped, I only felt worse.

On yet another binging day I felt so disgusted about myself, I searched the net for some help on binge eating and I ended up watchingvideos of Jackie on Youtube. And those videos somehow stroke a chord in me. And I knew I have to change my life, so I signed up for the tip of the day and started looking for some groups and teams. The beginning was all new to me, never have done such a group thing and it took some time to get used to it. But soon enough I got hooked and some days later I couldn’t imagine my life without this support anymore.

Today I’m at 70kg (I started with 85kg) and all my troubles with Hashimoto’s have disappeared. The disease is still there obviously – it’ll always be, it’s chronic – but it doesn’t disturb my life anymore. I’m full of energy, started working out 4 days a week and feel like a different person – from body and soul.

So how did I do this? What are my dos and dont’s that I want you to know? I’ll sum up my top 5 points here for you:

#1: Get some help!

I tried to lose weight and become fit for a long time, but after coming to PEERtrainer everything fell into the right place all of a sudden. It’s so crucial to have a lot of support on that weight loss journey and to know that you are not alone.

#2: Take care of your soul and spirit!

While losing more and more weight I learned that I also have to take good care of my soul and spirit to make this journey a successful one. And I learned so much about myself during that time. It’s all about bringing body, mind and spirit in balance. I do that with writing a lot and always starting the day with a little thinking.

#3: Look for a role model!

I don’t talk about stalking or obsession. But it helped me a lot to have a role model to motivate me. My role model might be a bit unconventional, as he’s male. It’s Dave Gahan the musician. He went through serious drug problems in the 90ies and came out alive on the other side. I can totally relate to his feelings and philosophy of life, when he talks about it in interviews. And you might be surprised how many parallels there are between drug addiction and weight problems.

#4: Try vegetarian or vegan!

After I learned that a lot of people feel better when going vegetarian or even vegan, I thought it’s worth to give it a try. It’s not as hard as you might think of, and I feel so much better. The book “Eat to live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman was very eye opening for me.

#5: Keep your awareness up!

You might come to that “point of no return”, where you think you are stable now and nothing can ever cause you to fall down again. I’ve been there. But I made the experience that I’ll never be there forever. I always have to be watchful not to fall back into old habits. It’s not as present as at the beginning, but for me it’s a lifelong journey.

Did I reach my goal? Not completely yet – my actual goal was to reach 65kg, so that would be another 5kg to lose. But I’m very happy already that I’ve come so far and I’ve figured that those last 5kg will be really hard. So I’ll give it a try the next few months, but I try not to stress myself out on that.

I just started reading “Slow burn” by Stu Mittleman – and it’s very inspiring. So you always learn something new and it’s so nice to be part of life and grow every day. I can’t believe that I nearly threw that life away!

So I hope this is a little inspiration to all of you out there who are still struggling. Don’t give up the fight – it’s really worth it! You deserve to be happy and healthy – so go for it!